Over on Barcelona Reporter there is a long-running debate in the comments section about whether the site has an anti-nationalist bias (it has, but in the name of balance and editorial freedom that’s perfectly justifiable) and there have been accusations that it thus draws in ‘right-wing anti-Catalan nutters’, both Spanish and foreign.

So why is it that guiris don’t generally buy into the whole nationalist deal? Yes, you get the odd Matthew Tree figure who makes the perpetuation of Catalan culture a one-man crusade, but a straw poll of the guiris I know reveals that most are at best indifferent, or in most cases quite strongly opposed to Catalan nationalism.

The obvious answer is that we simply can’t be arsed with the language, which is an integral part of nationalism here. Having struggled to get to an acceptable level in Spanish, we then see that we’re missing out on a whole range of things without Catalan, so we turn against it wholesale. That’s true in some cases, but plenty of long-term residents get by in Catalan or are actually fluent in it, and continue to resent Catalan nationalism. So what’s happening?

Most of my guiri mates, brought up in political climates with either a socialist or libertarian/free-market set of values, find Catalan nationalism to be completely incompatible with social equality or personal freedom, business efficiency and wealth creation, and herein lies the problem.

For anyone coming from the left, nationalism is about as attractive as being locked in a cupboard with a tape of sardana classics screeching away at full blast. Lefties can’t see why Catalonia should get special privileges within Spain because it contributes more to the national coffers (the basic argument of the ‘deficit fiscal’ nationalist crowd). Part of the fundamental reasoning behind taxes is to redistribute income according to need, not simply to repay it in terms of who paid most in the first place. And a Marxist analysis of the state of affairs within Catalonia reveals that government spending is carried out in a way that does nothing to help the most disadvantaged classes (which happen to be Spanish speakers in the vast majority of cases). Vast amounts of cash are spent on Catalanista initiatives which give nothing to the generally uninterested working class in order to forge/impose an identity that can then be used to the political advantage of the regional powermeisters and cover up incompetence and misuse of public funds. The 1.2 million euros given to the pro-Catalan national sports team platform this year, for example, are of dubious benefit to anyone apart from the nationalist middle-classes who use the idea to ratchet up their status as an ‘oppressed people’ and exert pressure in favour of their self-serving cause. Ignore and rule rather than divide and rule, but the outcome is broadly similar.

Guiris of a right-wing persuasion are often more libertarian, interested in personal freedom and free market solutions. Again, Catalan nationalism, with its market-distorting practices (the argument that Catalan language and culture is somehow a public good with positive externalities does not wash, I’m afraid), offers them very little. A regional government that uses the Institut Català de Finances to dole out cash to loss-making regime-friendly firms without applying efficiency criteria and which tries to bend the rules to help out small companies (thus encouraging them to stay small rather than grow) does not tie in with this line of right-wing thinking.

Socially, Catalan nationalism is constantly trying to impose a set of values on society instead of letting people come to their own conclusions; rather than adapt to the social reality of the country, nationalism tries to adapt society to an idealised vision of a glorious Catalonia from times gone by. This is as much of an anathema to guiris from the right as the left; that nationalist precepts should be taken as unquestionable truths to such an extent that any dissident voices are shouted down as fascists is offensive to anyone who values open debate.

So we’re just a bunch of malintegrats at the end of the day. But we can take comfort from the fact that we’re not the only ones, as plenty of Catalonia-born Catalans are also fed up with having nationalism (and its inability to answer their problems) rammed down their throats, as has been borne out by the results of Wednesday’s regional elections.

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This item first appeared on ‘Planet Churro: Mouthing off about Spain & beyond’ (03.11.06)

Web: http://daniel1969.wordpress.com/2006/11/03/guiris-and-the-nationalist-cause/